The Rizjo
(RY-so) plant is a cultivated grassy plant that is usually grown in flooded
fields. Though during spring and summer it is brilliant green in color, it
becomes a golden-brown in autumn, when the fields are drained for harvesting.
This plant produces numerous small kernels, which may be boiled, simmered,
steamed and eaten. These kernels are known in the plural as Rizj (Rys, Rise) and
form an important part of the Nybelmarian
diet. They are also commonly fermented into an alcoholic beverage called "Rizji
(RY-zee) Wine".

Appearance. The Rizjo
grows two to nine fores high. At first, the young Rizj plant is made up of only
one shoot, though eventually one, two, and often many more offshoots develop
from the base of this main stem. Each stalk has five or six joints from where
slender, thin leaves grow. The leaves of a Rizjo are slim and very long,
sometimes a fore in length! These leaves tend to be very stiff and are pointed
at the end. When young, the leaves and stalk will appear bright green, but as
the plant ripens, it will become a dull greenish yellow and eventually a deep
yellow. After harvesting the stubble fades to a soft greyish-yellow.

At the highest joint of each stalk, the plant branches
into a tassel from which many little flowers emerge, inside which the Rizj
kernels form. These kernels when harvested appear light brown. This is the color
of the rough outer shell, which isn’t very good to eat. However, this shell is
only a loose coating of chaff, and when the Rizj is threshed will easily slip
off to reveal a lighter, off-white kernel.

Territory.
The Rizjo is almost entirely a cultivated plant whose seeds are sown by farmers
and whose grains are harvested for food. Rizjo plants require a lot of
water and are thus grown in flooded field
or in places where rainfall is heavy. They are commonly found in the southern
part of Nybelmar, west of the Sohol Dolion
and south of the Bothon Dolion, including around the city of Gelm, Coihaven, and
Anpagan. They are also commonly grown on some of the southern islands of
Nybelmar, including the southwestern part
of Kaleman, the northern part of Jekin'thar, and the southern tip of Mohen Toi.
Rizjo plants are rarely found anywhere else as they
require good rainfall and warm climates.

Usages.
Rizj is a commonly-eaten meal prepared by boiling or simmering the grains in
water. During cooking,
the Rizj grains will swell up to two or three times their regular size because
of the water they soak up. It is advised
that, for every tot of Rizj, one should boil it with 1¼ tots of
water. Rizj can often be sticky and thus
molded into certain shapes before being seasoned or put into soups or stews.
Rizj, when fermented, will make an alcoholic beverage called “Rizji Wine”,
though the grains can also be used to make beer.

Cultivation.
The Rizjo can only be grown in humid regions with heavy rainfall. Slight hills
are more suitable than flatlands, as the land variation assists in drainage.
Rizjo plants are grown in shallowly-flooded fields known as "Paadiezj" or
"Padiezj", which we render in Tharian as "Paddies". The seeds are initially sown
in thick beds under careful shelter, divided into 'flats' of about a seatprint
in area by slim wooden barriers. The flats are then tended until the Rizjo is
thickly green and about a hand high (in about 30 or 40 days). Then the flats are
broken up and transplanted to the flooded fields, each bristling clump poked
individually into the mud beneath the surface of the water. The planted paddies
then appear to be large, shallow lakes with slender green stalks poking up
through the surface.

The water level in the paddy
is carefully controlled by systems of dykes and drainage. The paddy is usually
guarded around the perimeter with a small dyke or earthen berm to keep the
water in. A section of
this wall will be pierced through with clay pipes or tunnels to drain the field
if the water rises too high, and
the wall itself can be carved away to drain the field completely for harvest.
The field itself tends to be created by flattening a stretch of gently-hilled
land into stairsteps, draining from the top to the bottom, and then building
dykes around the perimeter to define the various paddies. Many paddies have been
handed down from farmer father to farmer son, although new ones are still being
constructed as people try to expand their holdings.

Rizjo farmers tend to begin planting Rizjo in Méh'avashín and Alé'veván, but
start growing them in nurseries a month or so earlier. Depending on the region,
some farmers will produce two Rizj crops a year on the same land as the climate
is such that it allows it. The paddies are kept flooded, usually with 5 to 15
nailsbreadths of water, until the kernels
in the head are fully developed; then the waters
are drained and the field allowed to dry out for harvest in the autumn.

When the golden or yellow-colored head of the ripe Rizjo plants bend down, it
signals to farmers that it is time to harvest. Workers will cut down the grassy
stalks, usually with long curved knives or sickles, then tie the stalks into
sheaves, or bundles, before leaving them to dry in the sun. Once dried, the
plants must be threshed to remove the Rizj grains from the stalks. In some
places, people or animals will trample the sheaves to thresh the grains from the
stalks. Other areas hit the sheaves against wide plaited screens that cause the
grains to slip through the openings in the screens and fall to a basket or tub
below. The grains are then tossed from basket to basket during a windy day to
rub and blow the outer chaffy hull from the Rizj kernel.

Myth/Lore.
Since Rizj forms such an important part of the diet of Southern
Nybelmarians, there are naturally many
references to it in their songs, stories, and even religion.

The islanders say that Rizjo can only grow where the "Rizjian
Maid" has walked and blessed the ground. From research
it appears that the Rizjian Maid is a type of nature spirit, a lovely
translucent female shape clad in golden robes who moves through the paddies,
floating with only her toes touching the
water's surface. She lies down between the rows of Rizjo seedlings at night,
and where she has slept the Rizj will be firmer and more delicious. The great
golden cranes that stalk about the paddies by dawn and by evening are associated
with her and are said to be her avatars.